SINGAPORE - Local escalator maintenance workers will also be covered under the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) from 2022, along with those maintaining lifts. Both groups of workers must also receive an annual bonus of at least one month of basic wages from January 2023, under recommendations submitted by a tripartite committee and accepted by the Government on Friday (July 16). The committee, led by National Trades Union Congress assistant director-general Zainal Sapari, also recommended annual minimum wages for lift and escalator maintenance workers between 2023 and 2028. This will ensure that at the lowest job level, a lift and escalator maintenance worker will earn at least $2,075 a month in basic wages in 2023 - a 12 per cent jump or $225 increase from the minimum wage for 2022. This will affect an estimated 1,300 Singaporean and permanent resident technicians in the industry, of which about 44 per cent are above 50 years old. There are about 3,050 technicians in the industry, with about 1,750 being foreigners. These workers service about 70,000 lifts and 7,000 escalators in Singapore. The PWM for lift maintenance workers was introduced in 2018 on a voluntary basis, and was set to...